How To Match Your Current Savings To Your Ultimate Retirement Needs

In a nation that debates
nearly everything, this topic creates almost no disagreement.Americans aren’t saving
anywhere near enough for retirement, setting the stage for a potentially dreary
time ahead for many when they reach the closing act of their lives. In fact, a study by the
Economic Policy Institute found that almost half of American families have no
retirement-account savings at all.

While the widespread-savings
shortfall is a given, a consensus is trickier to find when it comes to advice
on just how much of your weekly salary you need to stash away if you want your
retirement to be secure.

“Opinions vary; you’ll hear
some people say 10 percent, you’ll hear others says 15 percent,” says Rick
Rivera, a partner at Safeguard Investment Advisory Group (www.safeguardinvestment.com).
“Some people say you need to have saved $1 million by the time you retire,
which is a tall order for a lot of people.”

Clearly, something is better
than nothing, but following some general rule of thumb for saving could lead
you astray, Rivera says. Everyone has different circumstances, goals, and
objectives.

“What your neighbor needs and
what you need may not be the same thing at all,” he says. “You need to take a
look at your own financial situation and at what a good retirement would look
like to you.

Rivera suggests a few things
to consider on the way to zeroing in on the right savings amount:

• Figure out what it
is you plan to do in retirement.
Do you want to travel or spend a lot of time golfing? Is there a hobby you
enjoy? Maybe you want to spend time as a volunteer. “Once you have an idea what
it is you want to do,” Rivera says, “you’ll want to consider the expenses
related to those activities.” That means creating a budget and determining the
amount of monthly income you’ll need to do the things you want to do.• Review your potential
income sources. Will you receive Social Security? Is there a
monthly pension check in your future? Although it’s becoming much less common,
some people have great pensions, so they don’t need to save as much. Most
people, though, don’t fall into that category, so they need to focus more on
saving to cover the shortfall.• Do the math.
If, for example, your pension and Social Security add up to $4,000 a month, but
you’ve determined you’ll need $6,000, then you know you’ll need to make up that
$2,000 shortfall from your savings. Based on your age and an estimated rate of
return, a calculation can be made to figure out how much you’ll need to save to
accomplish your goal. A young person, obviously, could save a smaller
percentage of their income than someone who’s just 10 or 15 years away from
retirement.

“Depending on just how close
you are to retirement, you may even have some catching up to do,” Rivera says.
“This is why I say that following a general rule in a vacuum isn’t the best
idea. It may or may not get you where you need to be.”

About Rick Rivera

Rick Rivera is a partner at
Safeguard Investment Advisory Group (www.safeguardinvestment.com) and
has more than two decades of experience in the financial industry providing
guidance to those planning for retirement. He is an investment advisor
representative holding a series 65 license, as well as Life-Only and Accident
and Health licenses in California.